A common injury, especially among athletes and people of advancing age, is the complete or partial detachment of tendons, ligaments, or other soft tissues from bone. Tissue detachment may occur during a fall, by overexertion, or for a variety of other reasons. Surgical intervention is often needed, particularly when tissue is completely detached from its associated bone. Currently available devices for tissue attachment include screws, staples, suture anchors, and tacks, at least some of which are used in conjunction with suture to perform repair procedures.
Suture used in conjunction with repair devices can come in a variety of configurations, for instance in a braided configuration. Typically, braided sutures are created on a braider using eight or sixteen filaments. In order to create a continuous closed loop having a braided configuration, however, typically two ends of suture are tied or otherwise connected together. Braiders are not configured to create continuous braided closed loops. In some instances, a continuous braided closed loop may be able to be formed manually by taking at least three separate filaments and alternately crossing them over each other so that a braid results and the filaments can be manipulated to form a loop shape. In such instances, a person continues to manually weave the filaments back and forth until a desired length, pattern, and thickness are achieved. The formation of a continuous closed loop having a braided configuration is thus time consuming, and can be susceptible to imperfections from user error due to each weave being performed manually. Additionally, as the number of filaments used to form the braided configuration increases, so too can the risk of failure due to unsatisfactory filament. Still further, the use of separate filaments can increase costs and become difficult to manage during the construction of the braided suture.
Another suture configuration that can be used in conjunction with tissue repair devices is a closed loop configuration. The closed loop can provide stability and strength in certain repair procedures. Some closed loops can also be braided. To the extent closed loops are braided, they can suffer from the same deficiencies as a braided suture generally. Additionally, existing types of closed loop configurations can be deficient because they can be difficult to manufacture in a fast and efficient manner while maintaining a desired strength.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide devices and systems, and methods of manufacturing the same, making it easy to create continuous braided closed loop implants. The implants can be easier and possibly less expensive to manufacture, without sacrificing the strength and integrity of the implant. In some instances, it can also be desirable to form continuous braided closed loop implants from a minimum number of filaments, including as little as a single, elongate filament.